Writing and fan letters

I got my very first piece of fan mail about one of my stories earlier this month. After my immediate reaction, which was to do a very undignified happy dance, it prompted me to think about the whole question of the relationship between readers and authors.

I was inordinately pleased to receive the letter. As an author, I write something and send it out into the world with no real idea who's going to see it, or indeed if anyone is going to look at it. I know the editor who bought it liked it, and presumably thinks other people will like it, but I have no way of knowing if they're right. Eventually, if it's going somewhere that pays royalties rather than a one time payment, I'll get some feedback, at least in terms of how many copies of it have sold. That doesn't tell me if the people who bought it liked it when they read it though.

So I'm sitting here with a piece of genuine, unsolicited feedback, thinking how wonderful it is to know that at least one person really like my story. Then it hit me. I've read dozens, maybe hundreds of things that really touched me, that spoke to me in ways that made me read them over and over again. But it never once occurred to me to pick up pen and paper, or in more recent years, email, and write to tell the author that.

I always felt that authors were terribly important people, who would never have time to read my letter, or care than some fan had written to them. After all they were famous and undoubtedly very busy. They wouldn't care that a fan had written to them. It would probably just get thrown out by some secretary. (And all the authors who are reading this are probably now either laughing or wondering what planet I grew up on.)

Now it suddenly dawns on me that I'm, at least in theory, now one of those important busy people. And all kinds of things I thought about what it's like to be an author were completely wrong. I haven't suddenly become too busy and important to care what my readers might think. In fact, it means quite a lot to know what that what I wrote worked for someone, and maybe made their day a little brighter. I'm learning now that even established authors have days when they question the value of their work.

I find myself thinking now that perhaps if I had written to some of those authors whose work really touched me, it would have brightened their day just as much as the letter I received did for me. I wish I'd realized that. Who knows, maybe one or two of them would even have written back.

So if something someone writes touches you, don't be shy. Write the author and tell them so (assuming you can locate an address). As long as you don't overdo the number of letters to someone, the worst thing that will happen is they ignore it. On the plus side, your letter may be a bright spot on a day when they really needed one, and maybe you'll make a friend.